General Motors' Stephen Marlin demonstrates using a public recharging station to charge up a Chevy Volt from the 2012 Albany Auto Show Times Union Center in Albany March 9, 2012. (John Carl D'Annibale / Times Union)

General Motors' Stephen Marlin demonstrates using a public...

General Motors' Stephen Marlin demonstrates using a public recharging station to charge up a Chevy Volt from the 2012 Albany Auto Show Times Union Center in Albany March 9, 2012. (John Carl D'Annibale / Times Union)

We always remember our first cars, often give them nicknames and use them as symbols of power and prestige.

One revolutionary car on display at this year's Albany Auto Show has excited more passion on the automotive and political fronts as a symbol of how Americans can remain mobile and use less gas.

The Chevrolet Volt is General Motors' first electric-gas hybrid car, or as the company calls it, an extended-range electric vehicle.

The vehicle has also gotten dragged into the presidential campaign, drawing partisan lightning bolts from critics who see alternative-fuel vehicles as inferior and efforts to promote them as improper. President Barack Obama says the Volt is a showpiece of U.S. alternative energy technology.

Politics aside, how does the Volt perform on the streets of Albany?

A test drive by a Times Union reporter revealed a smooth, well-finished and comfortable sedan that handled well, and required no innate knowledge of electric battery technology to operate.

Joined by Stephen Marlin, a GM relationship manager for fuel cell activities, the 20-minute test drive was on city streets around the vicinity of the Times Union Center, where the auto show runs through Sunday.

For energy, the Volt relies on two sources — a 16-kilowatt lithium-ion battery pack and gasoline, which powers an engine that runs a generator to keep the battery charged and able to power the vehicle after it is drawn down to a certain minimum.

Volt battery life depends on three factors — the outside temperature, as cool weather depletes batteries; the terrain, as more energy is used to climb hills; and individual driving style, because sudden starts and stops use more energy, Marlin saud.

It takes about 10 hours to fully charge a battery using a standard 120-volt household outlet. The time drops to four hours for a 240-volt outlet, which is commonly used to power heavy-duty home appliances, like clothes dryers and electric ranges.

When fully charged, battery power alone propels the Volt between 25 and 50 miles, well within the average 29 miles a day that a U.S. driver commutes, according to federal transportation statistics. It takes about $1.50 in electricity to fully charge the battery, said Marlin.

When the gasoline engine kicks in, the car can travel another 300 miles on electric power.

This gives the Volt two mileage ratings from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency — the equivalent of 93 miles to the gallon in all-electric mode, and 37 miles to the gallon when gasoline is used.

Electric-only operation costs about two cents a mile, based on an electricity price of about 12 cents a kilowatt hour, said Marlin. In contrast, a gasoline-only car that gets 25 miles to the gallon costs 16 cents a mile, based on $4 a gallon gas.

The test drive included a stop at a public electric car charging station at the Holiday Inn Express, 300 Broadway, just a few blocks from the Times Union Center.

"We are getting people in here all the time to use the charger, at least once a week. Some are even calling ahead to reserve it," said hotel Chief Engineer Jeff Jaeger. The charger is free to the public and open 24 hours a day. "We intend to add more of these chargers," he said.

There are only a handful of public charging stations in the Capital Region. Others include the ShopRite on Nott Street in Niskayuna, which has two chargers, and the Hudson Valley Community College TEC-SMART building, 345 Hermes Road, Malta. There are five public charging sites in the city of Rome in the Mohawk Valley.

Jaeger said some electric hybrid vehicles include GPS systems that show the location of all public charging stations in the United States, even indicating whether an individual station is in use. "We had one guy come in here from California with his green Tesla roadster to recharge."

The California-made Tesla is a high-end sports car with the equivalent of 300 horsepower, and can go from 0 to 60 in less than four seconds. It also costs $109,000.

By contrast, the Volt has a sticker price of about $39,000. Buyers of electric cars like the Volt also receive a $7,500 federal tax credit. Credits are as good as cash; if the purchaser's tax bill is less than $7,500, the difference is a refund check from the U.S. Treasury.

As part of a proposed $1 billion program to help support the purchase of electric, hybrid, natural gas or biofuel vehicles, President Obama wants to raise the tax credit to as much as $10,000.

In recent weeks, GOP presidential contender Newt Gingrich mocked the vehicle, saying it couldn't accommodate a rifle rack. Republicans held a hearing to lambaste the car after federal safety tests found the battery, after being impaled with a metal bar in a simulated crash and left for several days, could catch fire.

Federal safety regulators said the fire risk was similar to gasoline powered cars.

And the head of GM complained during his congressional testimony in January that the car, which President Barack Obama supports, was being turned into "a political punching bag."

Republicans counter-charged the Volt was getting special treatment on safety rules because the Obama administration supports innovation in alternative energy.

The company had set a target to sell 10,000 Volts in 2011; through the end of February 2012, about 8,200 had been sold.

Production was suspended earlier this month for five weeks to allow sales to catch up with inventory, General Motors officials said.